This is one of Saki's lighter and more purely humorous stories. It concerns a fussy and socially awkward man named Theodoric Voler and the difficulties he has when he is on a train and finds that there is a mouse climbing up the leg of his pants.

Voler is one of only two people in a train car. The other is a woman. Soon after the journey starts, Voler realizes the mouse is in his pants. He can't get it out without taking his pants at least partly off and he is way too shy to do that.

But the woman seems to be asleep. So Voler uses a heavy blanket to make a partition and then gets the mouse out of his pants. As he does so, the partition falls and the woman awakes. He grabs the blanket around his neck.

Voler then makes awkward attempts to explain why he is covered by the heavy blanket. He struggles to explain why he can't stand up. He is completely unsure as to how he can get his clothes back on and the station is rapidly approaching.

The story ends with the woman saying

"Would you be so kind," she asked, "as to get me a porter to put me into a cab? It's a shame to trouble you when you're feeling unwell, but being blind makes one so helpless at a railway station."